Pocket gun barrel cleaner



y 1958 H. c. FRIESEN 2,834,973

POCKET GUN BARREL CLEANER Filed Oct. 12, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. HENRY C FRIESEN ATTORNEY May 20, 1958 H. c. FRIESENI 2,834,973

POCKET GUN BARREL CLEANER Filed Oct. 12, 1956 2 SheetsSheet 2 INVENTOR. HENRY C.- FRIESEN ATTORNEY United States PatentO POCKET GUN BARREL CLEANER Henry C. Friesen, Dallas, Oreg.

Application October 12, 1956, Serial No. 615,586

4 Claims. (Cl. 15104.165)

This invention relatesin general to means for cleaning the barrels of rifles and similar firearms, and relates more particularly to means for cleaning the barrels of such firearms while in use out-of-doors, especially when used by hunters.

Ordinarily, the cleaning of the barrel of a rifle would be done with a thin steel rod having the usual small piece of cloth or other suitable gun wiping material secured to one end of the rod. However, the carrying along of such a cleaning rod is a considerable inconvenience to hunters and consequently, since hunters find it necessary to clean the barrels of their guns frequently while the same are being used during hunting, lengths of flexible wire are often used for this purpose since such a flexible wire can be rolled up and carried in the pocket. It is well known, however, that the use of Wire in this manner generally causes some damage to the inside surface of the barrel bore since the wire, which is ordinarily kept coiled, even though temporarily straightened before being used in the barrel, cannot be pushed through the barrel of the gun without having the forward end of the wire engage a portion of the wall of the bore and scrape at least some portion of the wall during its passage through the wall. This, if occurring repeatedly, can result in serious damage to the bore wall.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved gun barrel cleaner which will occupy only a small amount of space when not in use, but which can be used very satisfactorily for cleaning the gun barrel whenever desired and without any danger of damaging the wall of the bore.

A related object of the invention is to provide an improved gun barrel cleaner which can be formed into a small .coil and carried conveniently in the pocket, or in a small pocket-size container, and then be used in the same manner as the heretofore objectionable lengths of wire above mentioned, but which can be .used more easily and conveniently and. also without any possibility of scratching or injuring the wall of the bore of the barrel.

A further object of the invention is to provide .an improved pocket gun barrel cleaner which will be practical and simple in construction and which will be inexpensive tomanufacture so that it can be made available to the general public at a moderate and attractive price.

The manner in which these objects and other advantages are attained with the improved gun barrel cleaner of the present invention, and the manner in which the cleaner is constructed-and used, will be readily understood from the following brief description and explanation in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

-In the drawings: 1

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the cleaner partly coiled and placed within the bottomof a container or pocket box for the same;

Figure 2 is an enlarged elevation of the guide and handle at one end of the cleaner which forms an essential portion of the cleaner;

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional elevation showing the guide handle of the cleaner inserted in the gun barrel and being pushed along through the barrel; Figure 4 shows a gun patch or wiper cloth in the loop at the end of the cleaner;

Figure, 5 is an elevation, more or less diagrammatic, illustrating the cleaner extending entirely through the gun barrel and ready for the cleaning operation; and

Figure 6 illustrates the manner in which the cleaner with the wiper cloth attached is pulled through the barrel in the cleaning operation.

Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, the cleaner includes a length of stiff steel wire 10, preferably of the type of ordinary piano wire, having a length a few inches longer than the length of the gun barrel. A special guide handle, designated as a whole by the reference character 11, is pivotally attached to the forward end of the wire 10. The opposite end of the wire 10 is formed into aflattened elongated loop 12, the overall width of which is considerably less than the inside diameter of the gun barrel.

The guide handle 11 comprises a short bar of metal, or other suitable material, preferably approximately two inches or slightly more in length, substantially rigid, and ordinarily of greater diameter than the wire 10, but much less than the interior diameter of the gun barrel, the diameter of this bar preferably being about A; inch. The

' rigidity of the bar should be such that there will be no possibility that it will become bent with ordinary use. The ends of this bar are rounded, as indicated at 13 and 14 in Figure 2. A small loop or eye 15 is rigidly secured on the bar, or formed integral therewith, and is made with an aperture large enough to receive the 'wire 10 freely. The forward end of the wire 10 is secured to this loop or eye 15, as shown, so that the wire and bar are pivotally connected. The loop or eye 15 is located considerably nearer to one end of the bar than to the other, thus dividing the bar or guide handle '11 into a long portion 16 and a shorter portion 17. This division of the bar into longer and shorter portions is essential in the proper carrying out of the invention, as will be later explained.

When the cleaner is to be used, a small piece of cloth or gun patch, or some other soft material, suitable for wiping the inside wall of the gun barrel in thecustomary manner when pulled through the barrel from one end to the other, is secured in the elongated loop 12 on the end of the wire 10, as illustrated by the wiper 18 in Figure 4. This is all that is required for preparing the cleaner for USC- When the gun barrel is to be cleaned, the guide handle 11 is inserted in the end of the barrel 19 with the shorter portion 17 of the guide handle inserted first. Then the guide handle and attached wire are pushed through the barrel until the guide handle emerges from the other end of the barrel. Due to the fact that the portion 17 of the guide handle 11 is considerably shorter than the portion 16, and precedes the portion 16 as the guide handle is pushed through the barrel by the wire, and to the fact that the long portion 16 then becomes the trailing portion of the guide handle, the forward end 14 of the guide handle will not engage the gun barrel wall along the side opposite the side engaged by the rear end 13, but, when the guide handle ismoved out of parallelism with the axis of the gun barrel bore, due to encountering dirt or -to any tendency of'the spring wire 10 to assume a curved position in the bore, the forward end 14 will neverthelessrbe held more or less centrally positioned within the bore untilsuch time as the guide handle can again return into parallelism with In other words, the inside handle will never 7 nel, the opposite or rear end 13 of the trailing longer portion 16 will continue to contact the wall of the channel and to slide along in contact with the channel wall, but, since the length of this trailing portion 16 is much greaterthan the diameter of the bore, the angularity between the guide handle and the channel wall will be held to a small acute angle more or less as indicated by the angle X in Figure 3. Such acute angularity will not enable the front end 14 of the shorter portion 17 to reach the channel wall on the opposite side. Consequently no scratching or scraping of the wall by the guide handle or by the wire becomes possible. tion 16 of the guide handle can, of course, cause no injury to the wall surface as will be apparent from Figure 3.

When the guide handle has been pushed out from the far end of the gun barrel, the guide handle is manually grasped as illustrated in Figure 6, and then is conveniently used for pulling the wire, and with it the wiping patch or cloth 18, through the barrel. This guide handle provides a convenient and comfortable finger hold for manually pulling the wire and wiper through the barrel and thus renders the cleaning operation an easy one.

The operation can be repeated as often as desired, and the wiping cloth can be changed each time if the interior of the gun barrel appears quite dirty.

Since the length of the guide handle will not greatly exceed a couple of inches, the entire cleaning device can be kept in a small box or container, such as that illustrated in part at 20 in Figure 1, the box or container being required to have an inside diameter of dimension only slightly greater than the length of the guide handle.

I claim:

1. In a gun barrel cleaner of the character described, an element capable of being inserted through the bore of a gun barrel from one end to the other, a guide handle having an elongated main body portion having a length equal to several times the diameter of the bore of the gun barrel, means on said guide handle for attaching said element thereto, one end of said element pivotally connected with said means, said means located considerably nearer to one end of said main body portion than to the other and thereby dividing said main body portion into sections of unequal length, whereby, when said guide handle, with said element attached, is inserted into one end of said bore with the shorter of said sections of said main body portion preceding the other longer section and said guide handle is pushed along in said bore by said element, the forward end of said main body portion will be kept by the trailing longer section of said main body portion from engaging the wall of said bore along the side opposite from that engaged by said trailing section while said guide handle will prevent the attached end of said element from engaging the wall of said bore, and bore cleaning means attached to the other end of said element.

2. In a gun barrel cleaner of the character described, a wire capable of'being inserted through the bore of a gun barrel from one end to the other, a guide handle for said wire consisting of an elongated body extending in a substantially straight line having a length of approximately two inches, the cross sectional area of said body being only a small fraction of the cross sectional area of said bore, the ends of said body being rounded, means on said body for attaching said wire thereto, one end of said wire pivotally connected to said means, said means located considerably nearer to one end of said body than to the other and thereby dividing said body into sections of unequal length, whereby, when said guide handle, with said wire attached, is inserted into one end of said bore with the The engagement of the end 13 of the trailing porshorter of said sections of said body preceding the other longer section and said guide handle is pushed along in said bore by said wire, the forward end of said body will be kept by the trailing longer section of said body from engaging the wall of said bore along the side opposite from that engaged by said trailing section while said guide handle will prevent the attached end of said wire from engaging the wall of said bore, and bore cleaning means attached to the other end of said wire.

3. In a gun barrel cleaner, a flexible element capable of being inserted through the bore of a gun barrel from one end to the other, a guide handle for said element, said guide handle having an elongated main body portion having a length equal to several times the diameter of the bore of the gun barrel, the cross sectional area of said main body portion being only a small fraction of the cross sectional area of said bore, an eye on said main body portion for attaching said element thereto, an end of said element pivotally connected with said eye, said eye located con siderably nearer to one end of said main body portion than to the other and thereby dividing said main body portion into sections of unequal length, and means on the opposite end of said element from said guide handle for holding a gun barrel wiper on said element whereby, when said guide handle, with said element attached, is inserted into one end of said here with the shorter of said sections of said main body portion preceding the other longer section and said guide handle is pushed along in said bore by said element, the forward end of said main body portion will bev kept by the trailing longer section of said main body portion from engaging the wall of said bore along the side opposite from that engaged by said trailing section while said guide handle will prevent the attached end of said element from engaging the wall of said bore.

4. A gun barrel cleaner including a wire capable of being inserted through the bore of a gun barrel from one end to the other, a guide handle for said wire consisting of a substantially rigid bar extending in a substantially straight line having a length equal to several times the diameter of the bore of the gun barrel, the cross sectional area of said bar being only a small fraction of the cross sectional area of said bore, the ends of said bar being rounded, means on said bar for attaching said wire thereto, an end of said wire pivotally connected with said means, said means located considerably nearer to one end of said bar than to the other and thereby dividing said bar into sections of unequal length, a loop on the opposite end of said wire from said guide handle, and gun barrel wiping material secured in said loop whereby, when said guide handle, with said wire attached, is inserted into one end of said bore with the shorter of said sections of said bar preceding the other longer section and said guide handle is pushed along in said bore by said wire, the forward end of said bar will be kept by the trailing longer section of said bar from engaging the wall of said bore along the side opposite from that engaged by said trailing section While said guide handle will prevent the attached end of said wire from engaging the wall of said bore, and whereby said guide handle, after being pushed beyond the other end of said bore and gun barrel, will serve as a finger hold for manually pulling said gun barrel wiping material on the other end of said wire through said bore.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

